Well I did it!! I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge this morning. It was a
3 1/2 hour tour. Dennis had booked my independent tour last summer. The
cruise ship offered the same tour but it cost much more. I was the only person
from the ship out of the group of ten people.
First thing that happens is that they take our group into a circulator room with
a bench to sit on. Here they have you sign a waiver and then they give each
person a breath test. They want to make sure that no one had alcohol or drugs
in their system. They take the group into the next room to get ready. By the time
we were ready we had put on a jump suit, handkerchief around out wrist,
harness around our waist, batteries and earphones, hat, and a rain jacket in a
pouch hooked to the harness. They taught us how to climb up and down
stairs while tethered to the wire safety cord.
We had to go through security like those at airports. They told us to line up
according to the order we wanted to walk the rest of the tour. Once we start
and get hooked the safety cord, we could not change places. The lady in
front of me was from Cairns. The lady in back of me was from Denmark.
Both of them had their husbands with them.
Just before were ready to start out, we had to put our hands on the wall and the
guide did a quick pat down. I guess all of this security is their way of trying
to keep terrorists off the bridge. We latched on to the safety cord and away
we went.
The views were fantastic!! The only draw back to the tour was that you could not
take a camera with you. The guide took a couple of group pictures. He also
took about six individual pictures of each person or couple. Of course they wanted
you to buy some when the tour was over.
When I was finished, Dennis was waiting for me with a ice cold diet coke. I think
everyone gets to keep their hat because your hair looks so bad after the wind and rain.
I didn't have any problems while I was on the tour but I was super tired and hungry
once I was down. We were told that we had climbed over a thousand steps.
At 2:00 pm the ship pulled out of port and we are on our way to Cairns.
In the evening we were invited to a cocktail party and dinner at the Pinnacle Grill.
The whole evening was dedicated to meeting the president of Holland America Line,
Stein Kruse and his wife Linda. They had just gotten on the ship at this port.
Once again there was assigned table and seats. We had the ship's doctor and her husband
with us. We were surprised that the whole affair had taken four hours.
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